In my opinion the only effective use of the mana turret is area denial...keeping people from going to certain areas.....maybe. Killing is happenstance at best... IMO. Is that what the role of the turret should be..or should its hitting power be increased to actually be a weapon to be respected ? My opinion.....I would like to feel I could kill things if I exposed myself in a stationary position on the front line.. Your opinion ?
I have many kills with the AV turret, which can be like a steerable Phalanx Spear turret against infantry as well as good against vehicles. I found the AI turret not as much use as getting closer to the enemy and using carbine tbh. If I am able to hit infantry with it hard enough for kills I am close enough to get sniped or blown away by a tank. Which happens pretty quickly. TL;DR drawback of being a static target at close/medium range outweighs advantage of AI turret (in my limited experience).
I love my Engineer's Mana AV & AI turrets, however to answer your post, they are Sniper Enablers. However there are rare battles were the opposing zerg sometimes forgets their snipers and pull only vehicles. Savor those battles and try to collect as many kills for your AV turret.
In terms of DPS and accuracy, it is still great but the situations for the AI turret are pretty rare in my opinion. Personally, i only found it useful when you ae defending a chokepoint with little to no possibilities for enemies to retreat. When i finally think "Yepp, THIS is one of those situations" i have to run to a terminal, come back and mostly, the battle has changed so that THIS is not the same situation anymore and my turret is useless now Using it outside is an invitation for all snipers (hell, i loved turret engies when i used to snipe a lot), so that is a no-go for me.
If you cant kill with AI-turret you need more practice. I know this sounds dumb but i actually recommend 2 hours practice in VR-room. Kill a looooooot of dummies with turret in VR-training. Just do it. It has literally zero recoil - put your aim at enemy heads and it will literally never drift off. Ever. Just remember to burst (reset cof) and remember that zero recoil -> zero reason to not go directly for headshot. When in a turret, maybe it can help to try to think you are sniper with bolt-action. Always always take the headshot.
I recommend to watch the old Wrel guide about the turret. In some places it really does the job well. For instance I like to guard grav lifters. In general it's ok indoor where you can aim at chokepoints and have your back covered.
AV or AI? What's the thread about? AV is great on cliffs or being a support dpser with heavies. AI is good at holding a hallway better than a heavy. Imo the AI is kinda weak.
As far as I can tell it's for area denial mostly, but skilled users can kill people rather quickly with head-shots. I would love for there to be upgrades like better damage for less ROF or shield/ more sheild for less damage, etc. I also use it for blocking windows, and distraction. Also I use it to climb up some places. A good tip is to look a little up and you are practically invincible from incoming fire, but you can't see the enemy.
it has the damage of a gauss saw and absolutely no recoil, its a monster in the right situation! position the crosshair at head height and keep tapping the mouse and you'll land round after round into the heads of any enemy coming into its line of fire.
It can kill, but you need to aim for the head. Thanks to no recoil and low bloom it's not that hard. It's best usage is to use it to supress narrow pathways. You also need to place it carefully and use natural cover like boxes and walls, to make shure you can't be flanked/sniped that easy. If you enter the mana ai turret without proper cover, it's almost a deathwish, so you should rather use it as mobile cover, than as actual weapon, when you have nothing available, to cover your weakspots.
Tone down mouse sensitivity when you're on a mana turret. The heavy machinegun is very difficult to aim with as it feels 'slippery' at default mouse sensitivity
This is probably uncommon, but I prefer using the AV Mana turret for anti-infantry. OHK against everything, and 2 hits to kill a MAX! And there is no cone-of-fire to worry about, and the messy hitbox protects you from low-elevation snipers. For pin-point accuracy I set mouse sensitivity to zero (sucks when I have to get out to deal with flankers). TL;DR I'm bad with the Anti-Infantry Mana turret.
Shields for the engineer will very likely replace the turret soon anyway, AI turret it is still a good bullet sponge and body blocker when put in a doorway. Be sure to run flak armor and if you can, position at the top of stairs. If there isn't a good way for you to be sniped, you will mostly have to worry about rocket and grenade spam, otherwise it's a point and click adventure (Rarely will you get flanked if you are in a decent sized fight).
